Caught In The Middle
by Kiera Matthews
Summary: Chapter Three up :Erin Glen ran out on Shane Helms, leaving her sister Phoebe to pick up the pieces. But what can she do when she finds herself falling for her sisters ex?
1. Default Chapter

*Dedicated to Alys, for becoming my biggest fan, lol!*  
  
Erin and Phoebe Glen where twins. Erin was cool, calm, confident and ever- so-slightly bitchy. Next to her, Phoebe always felt slightly geeky and somehow, less elegant. Erin was always there, in the latest Prada design, talking about the latest resturant and with a nasty comment for whoever pissed her off on the tip of her tounge. She had everything, even the perfect fiancee. But now Phoebe didn't know what to think of her sister, not after she'd ran out of the church hours earlier leaving her pefect fiancee humilaited. No one had seen her, Phoebe didn't undestand how you could lose someone in a five hundred dollar wedding dress. But Erin had disappeared. Now Phoebe had been given the job of staying with Shane while everyone else looked. He hadn't said a word and she felt arkward, still sitting in her blue bridesmaids dress. She didn't know what to say, what could she say.  
  
"She'll be back." Phoebe told him, trying to sound convincing, but not exactly believing it herself.  
  
Shane gave a small laugh and turned to face her. "When?"  
  
"Soon. I'm sure she just needs time to think."  
  
He laughed again, but his face quickly crumpled, he was trying to hold back the tears. "Do you think she's alright? Wherever she is?"  
  
"I'm sure she's in a dingy bar, perched on a stool arguing with someone who had the audacity to suggest her dress wasn't Vera Wang."  
  
That, Phoebe could fully believe. But she doubted her suggestion that Erin was happily residing in a bar while Shane was devestated made him feel any better. Shane got up and undid his neck tie. For the past three months Phoebe had lived with Erin and Shane, she had nothing new to learn about her sister, but she'd picked up things about her soon-to-be brother in law. Like how the first thing he did when he was stressed was head straight for the shower, which he did a lot when things at work got tough. When he was worried, he got straight on the treadmill, and Phoebe had taken to sitting with him and listening to his problems. In the weeks before the wedding they'd been mostly Erin related, and Phoebe felt awful that it had all been right.  
  
"I'm going to get a shower and then do some exercise." Shane told her "If she calls...."  
  
"I'll shout you."  
  
He nodded and then disappeared upstairs. Phoebe gave a heavy sigh and sank back in the chair. Anger towards Erin was welling up inside her. She always did this. Up and left, right in the middle of a good thing. Like leaving her first love, just because. Erin didn't know how good she had it. She found love as soon as she breezed out of college. Unlike Phoebe, she'd never been on a bad date, never dated a jerk and never had her heart broken. She almost lived a charmed life. The phone rang, Phoebe jumped but answered it on the second ring.  
  
"Erin?"  
  
"No. We haven't heard from her either."  
  
It was Amy, Erin's other bridesmaid.  
  
"Then why are you calling?"  
  
"Because your Dad just called. They found Erin's dress in her old room, all her things where gone. It looks like...."  
  
"She's not coming back for awhile." Phoebe finished, feeling a lump in her throat.  
  
"It must of been a major case of cold feet."  
  
"Shit."  
  
"We're calling the airport and bus stations. We'll tell you if we find anything."  
  
Phoebe hung up without goodbye and just as she did Shane appeared, clutching a towel round his waist and looking breathless.  
  
"Was it her? What did she say? why didn't you shout me?"  
  
"It was Amy. She....." She couldn't say it. She couldn't tell Shane that Erin was probably in Mexico by now. She couldn't break his heart. "She was just checking in, that's all."  
  
He went back upstairs and Phoebe bit her lip nervously. This was going to get so much worse, she could just tell. 


	2. 2

Phoebe hung up the phone, and the second she did Shane burst into the room. He always did, even after a whole week of not hearing a word from Erin he still ran to the phone.  
  
"I'm guessing it wasn't her."  
  
Is it ever? Phoebe thought. But she just shook her head. "No, it was just my Dad, checking in. "  
  
Shane nodded and sat down, giving a scream of frustration seconds later. 'Where the hell is she? No one can find her! It's like the Earth opened up and swallowed her whole."  
  
"You know what's she's like. She's resourceful. Erin could get herself a seat on a rocket if she wanted."  
  
"Why hasn't she called anyone? Just to let us know she's alright?"  
  
Phoebe shrugged. She didn't know how Erin's mind work, and god knows she'd spent a hell of a lot of time trying to figure it out. Maybe it had just slipped her mind to inform her family that she was infact still breathing. Nothing she did surprised Phoebe.  
  
"Don't you know anywhere secret place she might be?" Shane asked.  
  
Phoebe couldn't help but laugh. "Just because we shared a womb for nine months doesn't mean we're that close. She'll get in touch with you when she wants to."  
  
Shane lashed out, and knocked a lamp off the table besides him. He didn't seem to care. He buried his face in his hands and she didn't know what to do. She was never good in these situations. Uneasily, Phoebe sat next to Shane and put an arkward arm around his shoulders.  
  
"Don't worry, she'll......"  
  
"Don't worry!" Shane shouted, looking up and pushing her away. "Dont worry! My Fiance left me at the alter in front of three hundred people. My fiance has disappeared. My fiance could in all rights be dead and you're telling me not to worry! Get real!"  
  
"What am I suppose to do?" Phoebe shot back. "I don't think the's enough room under your black cloud for two of us! I know she humiliated you, but we can't bring her back. If she doesn't want to be found she won't be!"  
  
Shane got up and walked away from Phoebe. She felt bad instantly, he didn't need this.  
  
"I'm sorry." she muttered.  
  
"What am I suppose to do? I'm not use to her not being here."  
  
But Phoebe didn't know what to say.  
  
Shane took advantage of the time he should of been on honeymoon to stay in his room and accept meals from Phoebe through a gap in the door. After four days she was tired of having herself for company and only being asked:  
  
"Was it her?" every time the phone rang.  
  
After coming home from work and finding Shane's dirty place in the sink she'd had enough. Phoebe stromed upstairs and hammered on the bedroom door.  
  
"Shane! Open up now!"  
  
He ignored her and she went on.  
  
"Shane open the door or I'm going to kick it down! Right!"  
  
For a few seconds, Phoebe though she would have to do that. As if Shane was testing her, just to see if she could or would. Then it opened and she walked in. The room was a mess, the cutians where still drawn and the bed looked more like a nest. THe picture of Shane and ERin that had stood of the bedside table was now face down.  
  
"What?" he asked.  
  
"Get downstairs now."  
  
"Are you telling me what to do?"  
  
"You're damn right I am. I'm sick of making you meals just for you to sit up here. It's not doing anyone any good."  
  
"I want to be alone." He replied.  
  
Phoebe groaned. "Well I don't and there are two people in this house. You've had your friends calling all week. They want to be there for you, but you don't want to know."  
  
Shane ignored her, her just lay on the bed and flipped through the televsion channels. Phoebe gave a mental sigh and changed tactics.  
  
"This won't bring Erin back."  
  
"I know." He said simply.  
  
Then for a couple of minutes he said nothing. He stared at the wall, but eventually he got up and headed out the room.. Shane stopped next to Phoebe.  
  
"What will being her back?" he asked.  
  
She wished she could answer him, but the truth was, she didn't know. No one, except Erin did. 


	3. 3

A month passed. Shane went back to work, Erin was still AWOL and Phoebe became an almost honorary housewife. She would go to work, come home to cook, clean and wash. She'd would help Shane pack and call him up while he was away. She did everything that Erin should be doing. But she was mostly likely in Paris, already fluent in French. It was in the middle of attempting to bake a cake for the fisrt time in twelve years when the phone rang. Phoebe answered, leaving a slightly yellow mixture on the back of it when she picked it up.  
  
"Hello this is Phoebe."  
  
Over the years she'd grown accustomed to taking calls like this, even when she lived alone she could never shake the habit. Such was the curse of having a twin sister.  
  
"Well I know it's you. I'd be bloody surprised if Erin answered."  
  
She couldn't help but smile at hearing her mother's voice. Julie Glen was British and even though she'd grown up hearing her say things like "bloody and bugger " It had seemed out of place since Phoebe was about six and all her friends started to notice that her mom was different.  
  
"Hey Mom. What's up?"  
  
"I just had a phone call of some deliquent calling himself Harper. Harper? I ask you? I knew a boy called Harper in school, but that was his last name, not his bloody first. Do you know him?"  
  
"Harper Lions, one of Erin's friends."  
  
"Well I know that. He sounded a bit...odd to me."  
  
In Julie's terms, odd meant gay and she wasn't wrong. Harper was extremly camp. If memory served, his real name was Thomas Jones. But he'd once remarked that no one was ever going to get noticed with a name like that.  
  
"Seems he's heared from the runaway bride. She wants her things from here. Wouldn't say where she was. I think it's safe to say that she's settled somewhere for awhile now."  
  
Forgetting about her covered hands, Phoebe rubbed her forehead. "Shit."  
  
"I know." Julie replied with a heavy sigh. "I think you should tell Shane. Break it to him gently."  
  
An hour later, Shane arrived home. He found Phoebe was cleaning up after her baking disaster with dried cake mixture in her hair.  
  
"Hey, any calls while I was gone?" he asked, as hopeful as always.  
  
She shook her head and carried on cleaning.  
  
"None at all? Not even off your Dad?"  
  
Phoebe stopped, she turned to face Shane and leaned back on the sink, biting her lip. That gave her away. Shane had come to learn just as much about her as she had about him.  
  
"Phoebe tell me what's wrong." He said, his voice shaking slightly. "It's Erin, isn't it?"  
  
"Yeah. It is. The thing is...."  
  
"The thing is what?"  
  
"The thing is, Erin's sent to my Mom's for some of her things. It doesn't like she's not coming back for awhile."  
  
The last sentance seemed to hang in the air. It seemed to take awhile for it to sink in. Shane eventually nodded slowly and shrugged.  
  
"Oh well."  
  
"It doesn't mean she never will." Phoebe said, trying to sound convincing.  
  
But all Shane replied with was "It doesn't matter." 


End file.
